In 2017, Jose Dominic was invited to dinner with the Salem family in Kochi’s Jew Town. Kenny Salem, an “old friend”, had migrated to Canada and was back to visit his ancestral home. Dominic was expecting his hosts’ famous dishes that evening, perhaps Jewish-style chuttulli fish fry and egg pastels. But there was more in store.
“My friend, the grandson of A.B. Salem, a Gandhian who’d fought in the Independence struggle, wanted to sell the house,” recalls the co-founder of CGH Earth, a renowned hotel and resort chain in Kerala. “With his sister, he made a list of five people, and I was the first person he called. He said he was hoping that whoever bought it would somehow try to keep the place in its original character.” A year later, it was mostly restored and members of the Salem family and the wider Jewish community, who had arrived for the 450th year anniversary of the Paradesi Synagogue, stayed there.
